Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Danube River Cruise~ Budapest

In April 2018, we were blessed to enjoy a Viking Cruise of the Danube River and visited Budapest, Vienna, Passau, Regensburg, and Nuremburg.
When Covid first began in 2020, I started this post and never finished it!!! 
Fast forward to 2021. We began making plans for a 50th anniversary trip so I started thinking about finishing this post which is only a tiny part of the Danube Cruise. I highly recommend  Viking Cruises. Viking takes great care of you and the travel is very pleasant because you can travel a long distance and not have to change hotels. Your floating hotel allows you to sightsee during the day and travel while you sleep. It is fun meeting people from all over the world and the food is wonderful. 
 We arrived in Budapest late afternoon and boarded our ship. After getting settled and given our itinerary it was time to enjoy our first dinner aboard the Viking Cruise longship. Then after dinner, we cruised the River Danube and saw the beautiful city of Budapest all lit up at night. It was a gorgeous full moon which always makes me happy!
This is the Szechenyi Chain Bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Budapest.
This is the capital building. Budapest is the capital city and largest city in Hungary.
The capitol building is huge and sits high up on the hill. Quite impressive on a night cruise.
The bridges are all so pretty.
The Parliament Building is one of the most recognized buildings in Budapest as seen in the iconic Viking Cruise commercials.  

This Art Nouveau design bridge is called Liberty Bridge and was the first bridge to be rebuilt after all the damage from World War 11. 
This is another Viking longship we passed as we cruised the river in Budapest. Keep in mind the ship is moving while I photographed the sites. It was also hard to see the buttons on my camera. But it was a very exciting experience seeing these huge and beautiful buildings as we cruised by.
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I still haven't finished this post on Budapest. The draft is dated May 21, 2021. It is now February 2022! I know but life gets very busy. 
 As you can see I am very behind on blogging about our wonderful travels.  




Matthias Church was built in the 13th century. But in the  1883-1896 restoration the Matthias Church received a colorful tile roof. It is decorated in Hungarian Zsolnay tiles of bright orange, brown, green, red, and white.


 Fisherman's Bastion is one of the top Budapest attractions. The seven turrets represent the 7 Hungarian tribes who founded the present-day country in 895.
 The views from Fisherman's Bastion are extraordinary.





This is the statue of St. Stephen the first Hungarian king, in 1906. 


I always enjoy seeing a model of the area. It gives you a good perspective. Matthias Church is enormous. It is one of the city's oldest buildings and is located on Buda Hill in front of the Fishermen's Bastion. It is a Roman Catholic church with Gothic Revival architecture.
Side streets with restaurants



I really wanted to walk across this bridge and look out on both sides of the river but time did not allow and I snapped this photo from our bus. 

The first time I saw this type of roof was Hotel Dieu in Beaune, France. You can view that post here.

These large WW11 photos made a lasting impression on me.
 Budapest was an interesting city viewed at night as well as during the day. I am glad we were able to see both.

We did take a fabulous anniversary trip to Italy and France in late August and early September. I blogged about the Tuscany portion here. I don't believe I will ever totally catch up blogging about our trips but I have hundreds of photos. 


17 comments:

  1. A beautiful post, Bonnie. You are truly blessed.

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  2. Gorgeous Bonnie, how special to experience this. It was on my mom's bucket list, however she passed before fulfilling her dream. I have also the cruise is spectacular. Love seeing your glorious trip. Thanks for sharing this with your readers.

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  3. Bonnie, I do hope you catch up blogging on your trips. I do love travel posts. Budapest has been on my travel list for a long time. I so enjoyed seeing it through your camera lens. How nice for you to see it by night and day. The night views of the bridges, capital, and Parliament building are stunning. Daytime views are just as beautiful. The tiles on Matthias Church are quite amazing. I love seeing the side streets, did you try local food? The last photo is sobering. Thank you for taking me along, I loved all the photos.

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  4. So incredibly beautiful Bonnie, a trip of a lifetime! Thank you for sharing and taking me along...my husband hated to travel so I have only traveled inside the US, and to Canada and Mexico so I love to armchair travel with my friends. The Viking Cruises sound so wonderful, definitely the way to go!
    Jenna

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  5. Oh my mercy Bonnie. The pictures are beautiful! WOW! Can't wait to hear more. I have had the most people tell me that they prefer cruising over everything else simply for the fact they can be on the boat at night and have outings during the day. It's been years since I have been on a cruise. I might need to work on that! Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  6. What a fabulous trip. My SIL is doing this same trip in August! I will be excited to see her photos!

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  7. I had never really thought about going to Budapest before but after reading your post, I need to rethink that. What a gorgeous and fascinating city. I think the cruise was the way to do it, too. It looks like a trip to remember.

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  8. I'm sure this trip must have been so exciting Bonnie. Your photos are just beautiful and I am enjoying this post tremendously! I've missed our travels and hope to feel comfortable enough soon to plan another. We've never been to Budapest so I will add this to our possibilities. I'm happy you posted this trip, it has me dreaming again. Hugs..........

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  9. What an absolutely wonderful trip! The bridges were lit up so beautifully for you.
    And then seeing Budapest during the day was the icing on the cake. Thank you for taking us along.
    We enjoy cruising... its the way to see the world!
    Happy Thursday!

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  10. This looks like a trip of a lifetime. I would love to explore Eastern Europe! I really enjoyed seeing all of your beautiful photos. I enjoy your travel posts so much, Bonnie!

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  11. What a fabulous trip, Bonnie! My two youngest sons took art classes in Budapest one summer. They loved the city so much. Mike did two paintings of Budapest that I have in my home.

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  12. Bonnie, It looks like you had a wonderful trip! Capturing photos at night is a challenge, especially while moving! The capitol and parliament buildings illuminated at night must have been a spectacular sight and the details and color in the tile roof of the church is amazing. We have never been to France or Italy, I’m a white-knuckle flier and my hubby isn’t crazy about crowds so thank you for allowing me to be an armchair traveler. I hope you can post about your anniversary trip soon. ♥

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  13. That looks like such a lovely trip! Your photos are so pretty.

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  16. What gorgeous photos you captured on your trip! This cruise is definitely on my bucket list....I love your travel posts!!!

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  17. Bonnie, thank you for this post! It is beautiful, I have never taken a cruise but if we did, it would be a river cruise. Especially now that you have given it the thumbs up! wishing you a lovely week, friend, xo Lidy

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